Chapter Thirty
Luke
Luke:do u know Morgan Benson?
Billy:i know Faye Benson, his sister, and he has a bunch of brothers too. why?
Luke:no reason
Billy:okay then
Luke:should i know him?
Billy:don’t think so. he was a year below me at school. little weirdo kept showing his willy to old ladies
If Billy was trying to make me laugh, he was doing a shit job.If he was serious, I wanted to puke. My memories of school were hazy and felt like they belonged to someone else. I couldn’t recall anyone showing their dick to anyone, let alone old ladies, but I did remember the weird kid who’d followed Mia and her friends around.
I put my phone down as Fran came back in the room.
“I’ve got these for your brother.” She handed me a Tupperware containerof something that looked suspiciously like she’d baked it. “Tell him I’ll come up in a few days when he’s home. Help him get settled in.”
The chances of him agreeing to that were less than zero, and we both knew it, but I took the Tupperware anyway and put it by my keys. “Do you think I should tell him I’m coming?”
Fran straightened the already straight magnets on my fridge door. “I don’tknow. Maybe. You parted on good terms, didn’t you? And you’ve spoken since?”
“Yeah, but he asked us to stay away...give him some space. Ambushing him in hospital again is probably a bad move.”
“So tell him you’re coming.”
It seemed like madness. But my thumbs flew over my phone screen as I tapped out the message.
Luke:lock the doors. I’m coming to see u
Billy:when?
Luke:in a bit
He didn’t reply. And perhaps without Mia’s drunken encouragement I’d have backed out. But even if Billy told us to fuck off, getting out of Rushmere for the night could only be a good thing after the police had pretty much washed their hands of the harassment case.
My thoughts turned black again. Gus had called me an hour ago, but I still wasn’t at peace with what he’d told me.“She thinks it’s a coincidence. Her ex was being a dick about the divorce, and some Rushmere kids went on the rampage around the same time.”
Gus hadn’t offered an opinion either way, but I knew him well enough to assume his thoughts mirrored mine, and had given him the rest of the day off to stick around the house until I picked Mia up this afternoon—a decision that came back to bite me onthe arse when she called a little while after Fran left.
My phone was in my hand, fresh from the nervous text I’d sent Billy to tell him I was coming. “Hey.”
“You told my brother to stay home and babysit me?”
“No.” I set the phone to speaker and carried Fran’s Tupperware to the bin, knowing Billy would appreciate being spared her odd smelling sponge cake. “I’m knackered from neckingcocktails all night and carrying your trashed self home, so I gave him the day off.”
“Liar,”she spat for what felt like the thousandth time.
“If you say so.”
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
Mia fuckinghissed, venom seeping down the line and into my kitchen. “Brilliant. We’re back to that, are we? Evasive fucking bullshit that sends us round in goddamn circles?”
